All Forum Posts by: Ned J.

I would contact the seller and point out the issue....as well as the inspector........and sternly request to be reimbursed...more so from the inspector, since I think more liability falls on them.....the inspectors I have worked with kick on the heat and a/c for 10-20 minutes and actually see how they work to cool/heat the house......be stern but polite and respectful. You may get lucky and have them pay for the fix..... worth a shot. I know its not much $$ but I don't let people off the hook that easy just because its not really that much $$

But I wouldn't go past that....if they refuse, let it go, pay the cost and move on....hope that you don't find anything else

I would never buy from a flipper...... a large % are all working just off profit margin... their desire to do good quality of work is usually very low.....good quality work costs $$ and that eat profits. They want to make is nice and shiny, but often what lurks below the surface is crap

This an education and knowledge issue....if she wants to ignore the real information on how to run a real business then there is nothing you can do.....she can live in her fantasy world and fail.... the rest of us will profit on her failure.

Dave Ramsey laughs at a lot of people that chirp on about tax deductions when you are losing money...... obviously he is about paying off the mortgage and being debt free on your house...and people try to defend on keeping their mortgage by saying the interest is a tax right off.....so you want to pay 35k in interest so you can save 5k on your taxes?....make no sense.

As far as not having a ton of cash sitting in a bank earning less than 1%, there is some merit to that.... you should have you $$ working for you in a better way..... but that $$ better be in some liquid form that you can easily access to pay for the expenses that will come up....because they will..... its not a IF....its a WHEN.....and HIOW MUCH....

And I think that spreadsheet with the CapEx stuff in in the library under tools etc.... there are bunch of analysis Excel sheets and I'm pretty sure one of them has that as part of it

Well I will have to admit that I was pretty naïve about all the added things you need to think about when you analyze a deal....most of us were until we learned the hard way or learned via resources like BP. I will fully admit that I used to consider my positive cash flow as rent - P&I- landscaping- HOA = cash flow...... I never considered all the other Capex stuff ....so she is not alone. She jusy needs to really look at more long term expenses and be prepared for them, and that's just a matter of having someone teach her....if she doesn't want to learn, then that's on her and do not follow her advice on deals...

Wait...am I missing something?... your analysis shows a negative cash flow and negative cash on cash ROI.....and you are considering buying it with a foundation issue on top of that?.... what am I missing?

Got a SFR in Kingwood that I'm having a bathroom remodel done in.....never worked with this contractor......found them through BP......and I live in CA. My brother and his now ex-wife live in Houston. When I bought it, the sister in law was doing a lot of REI in the area, so she was going to be my "boots on the ground"..... with the divorce they sold all the property they owner and she has move on....relationship with her is cordial but kind of awkward to ask for favors

So my option is to fly there and check on some things, but even if I do that I cant be there long enough to oversee everything as far as quality and final product....until its all done....I'd rather be able to stop any issues before they go past the point of no return

My brother can check but he is clueless when it comes to construction etc...he can send me pix, but first hand he would have no clue what he's looking at. Basically I'm ripping out 2 showers due to water damage from bad grout work etc....so its a new shower pans, tile work etc.

So....any BPs that have some knowledge about shower installs etc be willing to help a brother out? I'm willing to pay for your time to drop in and do some inspections as the job progresses

Absolutely provide it....

I'm assuming that your fear is that the deal will fall through and the seller will use it for the next buyer that comes along...you paid for it and the seller is benefiting from now having it to use as his own. Well even if the seller tried to do that, the next buyer would be an idiot to accept it and not get their own independent inspection. No way I'm going to trust an inspection report provided by the seller...at least not with a huge grain of salt.

Another possible "fear"... the seller get the report.... the deal falls through....the seller uses the report and fixes/addresses the issues and sells to someone else. If they wouldn't fix or drop the price for you to close the deal, they probably wont be fixing the issue anyway and will just hope the next guy misses it....so its the next guys issue....

From the seller standpoint....I'm not going to accept some buyer or real estate agent's "word for it" when it comes to the inspection on my property...they have a huge vested interest in getting me to drop my price or fix stuff etc. They are going to try and haggle and negotiate any way they can to get a better deal for them...not me. Some people will lie,cheat and steal to do that....they will vastly over exaggerate an issues and blow it up as the end of the world to get you to drop the price.... So if you have an issue that will effect the price, I want an independent opinion on the merit of their issues....not your "word". Show me a documented issue and we can talk...expect me to just believe you and forget it

All of these options hinge on risk tolerance....... if you want to win big, you have to leverage big....but you have to be able to deal with the downturns. The strategy to keep leveraging and taking on more and more debt is all fine and dandy when the market is great...the economy is great...unemployment is great.... your employment is great....rental demand is great....but you have to be prepared when its not. A lot of people were riding that huge wave until 2007/2008 and a majority of them lost everything when the crash happened....so learn from that. I doubt a crash like that is going to happen in our lifetimes, but downturns happen. If you overleverage and cant deal with the bad times, you risk losing everything

I personally worked hard to pay off my own house free and clear....and then opened a HELOC on it..... Was that the best way to grow my wealth?.... probably not..... but its pretty safe and the feeling of having my house paid off is worth it to me....but I have no intention of paying off my rentals quickly. I would rather use their income and equity to buy more. But with my house paid off I can now amass cash quicker to buy other properties too, and use my HELOC. If something bad happens ( get sick, lose my job etc) at least I have a place to live and only have to worry about the taxes etc

So you have to factor in risk....with bigger risk, you have the potential for bigger reward...but also the potential for bigger failure....you have to decide on where in that spectrum YOU want to play

Stick to the lease..... if its specifically states its the tenant responsibility, then that's what it is....if you ignore the lease, then you might as well not have one.

If they want monthly service then fine... the rent is now increased by that amount.

If the tenant did the service without consulting and arranging the cost with you prior, then its on them....end of story.

Unless you are deadly afraid of having a vacancy, then stick to the lease and run your BUSINESS......

If you just cant bare to be that tough, then pay the one time service and make it 1000x clear that it will not be done again and NO 'after the fact" reimbursements will EVER be done again....be prepared to deal with more tenant "demands" if you cave

Hell no...... if the rent you set is in line with the local going rate, DO NOT concede it for a certain tenant. You are only setting yourself up to more concessions in the future....late rent, partial payments, concessions on fixing stuff that doesn't need to be done etc etc etc. Don't set the plate form day one that you will "cave" to what the tenant wants/needs/demands... you will regret it.

If the rent and deposit is to high from day one, there will be more financial "hardships" that will come up in the future than will result in late rent etc etc.... if she cant afford it now, she wont be able to afford it later...

I assume you have some affinity for police officers.... noble profession..... great respect for them doing that job....but in my experience some of them can be complete a-holes and very hard to deal with....they think the badge gives them the ability to bully you into certain things...threats of legal action etc.

You are running a business....if the tenant can't meet YOUR needs then move on to the next tenant.....

Pretty vague post/sales pitch.....